Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today strongly condemned the release of State Department cables by WikiLeaks, saying that there “is nothing laudable about endangering innocent people, and there is nothing brave about sabotaging peaceful relations between nations.”
In a press conference just now, Clinton decried the disclosure as “not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interest. It is an attack on the international community.” It “puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems,” she said.
But Clinton said she is “confident that the partnerships that the Obama Administration has worked so hard to build will withstand this challenge.” She later added that most of her foreign counterparts understand that this is “part of the give and take” of being in the diplomatic community, and one of her counterparts even said: “Well, don’t worry about it — you should see what we say about you.”
Clinton said she “will not comment on or confirm what are alleged to be stolen State Department cables, but I can say that the United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential.” But, she continued, “we are taking aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information.”
“I want to make clear that our official foreign policy is not set through these messages, but here in Washington,” said Clinton.
Here’s a clip from her opening statement:
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